


Deeper the Well

by whiteraven1606



Series: Three [7]
Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Conditioning, Culture Shock, Dehumanization, Developing Relationship, Dreams and Nightmares, Dreamsharing, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Multi, Past Child Abuse, Past Torture, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Recovery, Sleep Deprivation, Space Battles, Trust Issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-01
Updated: 2016-02-01
Packaged: 2018-05-17 14:12:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,275
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5873566
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whiteraven1606/pseuds/whiteraven1606
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When the <i>Finalizer</i> appeared in D'Qar's system Leia didn't expect to survive to evacuate. She was pleasantly surprised to not only live, but gain new X-Wings. She supposed she'd forgive Commander Dameron for not getting her the tea he'd been sent to get. Not that she'd tell him that, certainly not after he'd called her 'Princess General' to her face.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Deeper the Well

****

General Leia sipped at her caf as she looked over the morning reports. Dameron was going to be overdue if he didn't get back today. She tried to ignore the six children sitting along one wall of Command. At least they weren't in the corridor anymore at risk of getting tripped over.

She looked up from her reports as an alarm sounded. She stood and went over to the main display console. Leia mentally cursed as the _Finalizer_ , because even though they didn't have a positive identification yet didn't mean that she wasn't certain, dropped from lightspeed, and slowly turned towards D'Qar. 

"Scramble everyone." She looked at Admiral Ackbar across the display and knew he knew as well as she did they needed a miracle. She turned towards the children that were her escort this morning. "Gather your group together. We've going to evacuate."

Two of the six hurried away. The other four formed up around her.

"Lieutenant Connix."

"Ma'am?"

Leia watched as their X-Wings started to launch. "Get the former Stormtroopers their blasters from the armory." Six X-Wings against a Star Destroyer. They wouldn't last five minutes.

Connix saluted and disappeared from Leia's peripheral vision.

Ackbar shook his head. "They will not be able to buy us much time."

"No, they won't." She turned her head as Flight started yelling. "What is it?" She kept one eye on the display as another ship appeared in-system. It was...clunky. Not First Order. She squinted at the display. A freighter with no weaponry.

Leia turned her head as one of the children appeared with sets of armor in a bag. Her escort children were armored up so fast that Leia made a mental note to have them lead scramble drills if anyone survived this.

"All Squadrons, this is Black Leader, don't engage the _Finalizer_ yet. I repeat, don't engage."

She gave herself a half-second to feel hope before she stuffed it down with the reality that this just meant Poe had more defectors in that freighter and they were going to be just as dead as her base in less than an hour.

The children formed back up around her and passed blasters and helmets that another of their group appeared with around. Leia let the familiar sounds of weapon checks sooth her as Flight ran through code authentications with Commander Dameron. 

She watched the _Finalizer_ plow through the display towards them as Blue Three asked for orders. Leia started to open her mouth to tell them to protect Poe's stolen ship when it...blew it's cargo hatch? Ah, no, just opened the hatch. She leaned forward as that clunky freighter dropped out X-Wing after X-Wing into space.

Ackbar made a surprised sound and turned to an aide to mutter a note to check where the X-Wings were from.

She smiled as the X-Wings formed up and passed Blue Three headed for the _Finalizer_. "Lieutenant Connix!"

"Ma'am?" Connix appeared at her elbow.

Leia jerked her head towards the children formed up around her. "You're to get them onto a transport. They're to get out regardless of what else happens."

Two of the children tightened up against her. "With respect, Princess General, we will protect you."

"Connix, knock them out if you have to."

Connix eyed the children and then her. "I'll be back for your escort, General." She herded the one that had brought the others' blasters out of Command.

Leia huffed and turned back to the display just in time to see Han...She took a gulp of air, not Han, of course not, but _his_ ship dropped in on the display. She blew out a shaky breath as she flipped through the comm channels looking for...She grinned as Rey and Finn discussed the new X-Wings.

She gripped the side of the display console as the _Falcon_ started a run on the _Finalizer_ with four X-Wings at her flanks. Leia willed them to hit as they rolled for the first cannon. She kept her eyes on the display as she gave an order here and there to the base personnel.

Connix appeared at her shoulder. "We've got a problem, General."

Leia watched the _Falcon_ arch through a curve around the nose of the _Finalizer_. "What is it?"

"The children have dug in. They are refusing to board the transport." Connix looked disheveled when Leia spared her a glance. "They are insisting it is possible to defend the base. And they are threatening to stun me and sit on me until the fighting is over."

Leia sat her hand on the closest child's shoulder. "We're having a discussion later."

"Yes, we are." The child pointed at the display. "Oh! Look!"

Leia blinked and then blinked several more times because what she was seeing was something she'd never expected to see in her lifetime. A TIE was firing on the _Finalizer_. "Flight, warn our people that some TIEs are defecting!" She watched two in one place and a third further down the port side of the _Finalizer_ turn as well. "It _can_ work."

Flight was shouting about TIEs never defecting. Ackbar was arguing with Admiral Statura about what it meant for the First Order as Leia smiled wider as the _Finalizer_ tilted over to make a break for lightspeed.

Command broke out into cheers as the newly friendly TIEs started ejecting and the _Finalizer_ disappeared from their scans.

"Cancel the emergency evacuation. Get the rest of base packed and ready to move." Leia leaned against the display console as she took a deep breath. "One of you go get me Kaleine. The rest of you go pack up Commander Dameron's belongings and gather up the squad's bedding."

That dropped her escort amount to four. Leia blew out a breath and smiled as Admiral Statura grinned across the console at her. "Get them on the ground and alert Medical we may have several with decompression injuries."

With a nod, Admiral Statura commed Medical.

Admiral Ackbar turned to Flight to help coordinate as Leia straightened her tunic.

Unruly children that were too much like her adult personnel for comfort formed around her as she headed out of Command for their landing grounds. Trailing behind the children were her adult guards that would like to think she didn't know they were her bodyguards. As though she needed four aides with the best ground combat scores on her at any one moment. 

Leia settled on a bench just outside the blast door leading into base's main corridor. She could see small Stormtrooper armors peeking out of some of the best spots for firing lines they had. 

Kaleine jogged up with her little helmet under her arm. "Reporting as ordered, Princess General."

"I thought you were willing to follow my orders, young lady."

She put her helmet at her feet and went to attention. "We follow orders that make sense, Princess General."

Leia eyed her. "Evacuating a base that appears doomed isn't sensible?"

Kaleine's eyes narrowed for a moment before she lifted her chin just slightly. "You were going to send us, but stay yourself. We protect our officers. You are _ours_. Poe says that some things are common property. I think you are property of the Resistance. We're Resistance now." She frowned. "Sort of property? I don't have the word for what I mean. The mad pilot says that we can choose who to follow. That if we're assigned someone that doesn't make sense or is stupid we can say no to them."

"I was planning on everyone going that we could get out." Leia had to bite the inside of her cheek to keep from smiling. "You're meaning that I'm the heart of the Resistance. That without me you think they wouldn't go on."

She nodded and then shook her head. "They'd go on, but it wouldn't...work? At least, not well."

"Quit calling me Princess General."

Kaleine smiled wide. "I'm afraid officers have to be addressed by their proper titles. That includes Princess Generals."

Leia rolled her eyes. "Get your people off the edges of the landing field. We're going to have to use the overflow. They'll be coming down any moment."

"Yes, Princess General!" She saluted, grabbed up her helmet, and zipped away.

Leia leaned back and forced herself not to knock her head back against the wall. She needed a damn protocol manual from the First Order. She pressed her trembling hands together and waited for her people, new and old, to land.

****

Poe really wanted to smack some more First Order Assholes. "Seriously. I don't land until everyone under my command is down. That's how we work. You can do this, no problem."

Jaydavi made a hand signal at the newbie X-Wing pilot that was giving them the trouble. "Do what Black Leader says."

The newbie's face looked petrified through his canopy as he shook his head. "I _can't_."

Poe flicked comms to give him a private channel to Jaydavi. "Why is he terrified?"

Jaydavi made another hand signal Poe didn't know at their newbie. "Lowest score is last in line for everything. Including landing. Only thing it doesn't apply to is the instructor. He knows this wasn't training."

Poe huffed. "Alright, two seconds." He flicked over channels to Pava. "Blue Three, I need a favor."

"Like you don't already owe me, Black Leader. What do you need?"

Poe outlined his plan as Pava eased into their formation.

She huffed. "Fine. We're going to have to completely retrain them, you know."

Poe smiled as he looped out of the formation. "I know. Isn't it great?" He flicked back over to main comms and lied to his newbies that Pava's hit rate was the lowest so she would go in to land last.

****

Finn's hands were shaking as the ship landed on automatic. He looked at the console. Poe had said to hit a switch when Finn got to the ground, but as he looked over all the switches...Finn told himself to calm down. "You can do this. You can do this."

He hesitated before closing his eyes and reaching out. He opened his eyes as he flicked the switch he'd picked. 

The ship settled into low power mode. 

Finn grinned and patted the edge of the console. "Thank you." He unbuckled and headed back through the ship. He helped Tovin get Cerri and the rest of the children unbuckled. He lead them all to the rear hatch.

He stepped out onto the landing field as he automatically counted people, placements, and figured angles of fire. He frowned as two of Kaleine's platoon hurried around the perimeter. He gauged the landing pads and mentally counted loose ships. Ah, they were going to need more room for the landing ships.

He waved at Snap climbing out of his X-Wing and watched their new pilots landing. He could see the _Falcon_ hanging in the air waiting for a turn as people appeared from everywhere to celebrate. He patted backs and clasped hands with people he barely recognized as he waited for Poe and Rey to land.

Kaleine appeared at his side and soon there was a group of her platoon surrounding him and the new defectors from the freighter.

They watched as Jaydavi climbed out of his X-Wing and hurried towards them.

"It worked!"

Finn smiled and let the younger ones mob Jaydavi as they clasped hands. "It did. Poe is nuts."

Jaydavi's grin widered. "Did you see the TIEs? Part of them are from my old squadron!"

With a nod, Finn turned Jaydavi to watch Poe stand up in his cockpit to watch the last of the ships land. "I saw."

Poe waved at them and Finn waved back.

Kaleine patted his leg. "You need to sit down soon."

Finn rested his hand on her shoulder. "Medical is going to be upset with me when they hear what all we did. Help me towards Poe, please."

He was buoyed by the platoon as they gathered Poe into their group. "Poe!"

Poe smiled beautifully as he grabbed Finn's shoulders as BB-8 beeped excitedly from behind Poe. "That was a great landing, Finn."

Finn pulled him into a hug. "On automatic. I think I might have hit the wrong switch at the end."

Poe tightened the hug. "You didn't blow up, so I say it was a success."

Finn pulled back with a horrified expression.

Poe laughed and wrapped him back up in the hug. "Joking. You'd need more than one switch to blow her up."

They parted and grinned at each other as the _Falcon_ settled close by.

"Rey is going to tease me to no end." Poe patted BB-8 with one hand as he kept his other arm around Finn.

Finn bumped Poe with his shoulder. "Well, you do seem to be collecting ex-Stormtroopers."

Poe huffed as the hatch opened and the ramp dropped down. "She got him to come with her."

"Rey is pretty persuasive when she wants to be." Finn watched as the pilots from the TIEs started to stumble together in a big knot down the ramp.

Jaydavi squealed and raced forward. One of the TIE pilots lit up and held her arms out towards him. They rocked together in a tight hug as Medical started gathering the rest onto ground transports.

Poe leaned against Finn for a moment. "That why he was talking fraternization rules with Pava?"

Finn smiled. "Could be. He talked about another pilot he was missing to the medical droid sometimes." He threaded his fingers through Poe's as Rey appeared on the ramp. "Rey!"

She waved franticly and headed for them. The children parted to let her pass. "Finn! Poe!"

They wrapped her into a hug and babbled at each other about being happy to see each other for several moments. 

Rey pulled back enough to nod towards the _Falcon_ as Luke Skywalker appeared on the ramp. "He's stubborn, but he came."

****

Poe stared as Master Skywalker came down the ramp with R2D2 trailing him. Kaleine gasped next to him and then next thing he knew the entire platoon was between him and Master Skywalker who had frozen at the bottom of the ramp.

He exchanged confused looks with Finn. He turned towards Rey, who was staring at the back of Kaleine's head. "What's going on?"

Master Skywalker frowned and cocked his head.

Poe felt a crippling wave of apprehension flow through him. He clung to Finn as Rey made a little distressed sound in her throat.

Kaleine straightened slightly and Master Skywalker reached out a hand to steady himself on the support strut of the _Falcon_ 's ramp.

General Leia appeared from behind them and she touched the back of Kaleine's neck. "He will not harm you, Kaleine."

Kaleine tipped her head back. "I can protect me fairly well, but he can hurt Poe."

Poe blinked and stepped up beside the General. "Kaleine, what are you doing exactly?"

The General started to step around the platoon, but they moved with her, keeping themselves between her and Luke. She huffed and turned to look at him.

Poe shrugged at her, because what did he know about Force things? Best he had was at least seven of their current set of children were Force-sensitive. He settled his hands on Kaleine's shoulders. "Explain, Kaleine."

"If we aren't here for him than he can't hurt any of us."

Poe looked at the Force-sensitive children's positions relative to Master Skywalker and Kaleine. They were spread out evenly on either side of Kaleine. He considered and wrapped one arm around Kaleine. "It'll be alright. Promise." He yanked her up into the air and dug his fingers in between the plates of her torso armor. 

He watched Master Skywalker's eyes widen as Poe's tickling Kaleine broke whatever it was the children had been maintaining.

"Leia?" Master Skywalker sagged against the support strut as the General pushed through the platoon to reach her brother.

Poe kept up the tickling as Finn and Rey tried get him off Kaleine. BB-8 was frantically beeping to his left as the platoon turned towards him.

Kaleine shrieked and then it broke to laughter as she tried to gasp for air.

Poe eased them to the ground and let BB-8 pull at him with a manipulator arm as he tickled along Kaleine's neck were he could get fingers under her black armor layer. She shrieked in laughter as she curled forward, wiggling in his hold.

Rey froze as the laughter peeled out of Kaleine. "What are you doing?"

On the other side of Poe, Finn and Noilo were staring at him in horror.

Poe eased off and let Kaleine scramble away into Finn's waiting arms. He looked at Rey. "You've never been tickled?"

Rey frowned at him. "Is that what that was?"

Poe was going to kick her family when he found them. From Kessel to D'Qar and back if he ever got the chance.

****

Luke steeled himself at the incredible amount of noise coming from open hatch. People. Lots of _people_. R2 nudged him and Luke patted him once before following Rey. She was so excited he could feel her pressing on him. It felt like being on the edge of a sandstorm to him after the solitude of Ahch-To.

He started down the ramp and caught sight of a group of children...He paused as he reached the bottom of the ramp. There was a hole in the celebrations. He cocked his head. It was a place he didn't want to notice. Didn't _need_ to notice. He lost control of himself enough to let his apprehension at the possibilities get away from him.

Luke took a breath and pushed gently on the area that suddenly wasn't there. He grounded himself on the familiarness of the strut of the _Falcon_ 's ramp as he tried to look past the empty spot of landing field that Leia had disappeared into.

Can't see them, feel for them. Alright. Luke concentrated...Rey and Leia were...muted. Camouflaged in a way Luke hadn't encountered before. Luke reached harder for Leia, but was stymied by a nothing that was just moving his perception sideways. Down? 

Luke blinked as suddenly the world snapped back to normal. 

"Leia?" He sagged against the strut as Leia hurried through a bunch of children in _Stormtrooper_ armor? Luke rubbed at his eye. Rey hadn't been exaggerating about them then.

He looked up sharply as a high shriek of laughter came from near the middle of the group. Leia wrapped her arms around him and Luke wasn't strong enough not to sink into her tired determination just a little. Just enough he could try to slow his own trembling.

"What _exactly_ did I miss?"

Leia snorted. "A lot, I expect. You're got new kids to train whether you like it or not. One of them, Kaleine, did that...whatever it was to you just now. I think she might be more powerful than Ben was when he was close to her current height."

"Height?"

"They don't know their ages."

He blinked. "Stormtroopers."

"Use to be. If you pick up calling me Princess General from her I will hurt you."

Luke huffed a shaky laugh into Leia's hair as he stared at the dark-skinned man that was holding one of the little not-Stormtroopers. "I don't think I can try again, Leia. Rey is...strong as well."

She hummed and squeezed him tightly before pushing back. "We'll discuss it later. We need to move bases now. Can you still fly?"

Luke blinked and steadied himself. Right, compromised base. "I'm rusty, but I think I could handle one of them." He nodded towards the X-Wings.

She grinned up at him as Chewie joined them from inside the _Falcon_. "Just wait until Jessika Pava gets ahold of you."

Luke let her lead him forward. "Should I be afraid?"

Leia snorted. "Oh, yes, very afraid. You'll see."

****

Poe kept a hold of Kaleine's hand as the General lead Master Skywalker through the platoon to them. "I'm sorry to report I didn't get your shopping done, General."

She snorted. "You're helping with their laundry then, Commander."

Poe grinned. "Well, Captain Romi let us have some changes of clothing." He jerked a thumb at the old freighter. "You remember that shipment of X-Wings that was lost several years ago? Found them."

She shook her head. "Commander Poe Dameron meet my brother Luke."

Master Skywalker's eyes widened. "You're Shara's boy?"

Poe blinked. "Yes, sir."

"You can call me Luke." He grinned. "She was very proud of you."

Poe suddenly felt like he couldn't breathe. "Thank you...Luke." Kaleine tugged on his hand. He grinned down at her. "Remember when Pava was telling you about the Battle of Endor?"

Kaleine nodded and peeked at Luke from around the edge of Poe's hip.

"This is that Luke. Jedi Master Luke Skywalker. He's the General's brother." Kaleine tugged on Poe's hand again so he knelt down. "What is it?"

Kaleine shifted her hold on her blaster and glanced at her feet before looking up at Poe with a painfully earnest expression. "I'll take all the ration docking we're due. Please don't take anyone else's rations."

Poe wrapped his free hand around Kaleine's shoulder. "We've talked about this, Kaleine. No one loses rations here. Worst you'll get is a talking to about not doing that to Master Skywalker again, alright?" He waited for her to nod at him. "Good. And, I apologize for tickling you to break your concentration."

Kaleine blinked several times before turned her face up towards the General. "What's the proper response to a higher ranking officer giving an apology? Does this happen often here?"

The General smoothed back Kaleine's hair. "Tell him you accept the apology. It doesn't happen very often, but we do our best not to harm the people under our command."

"Huh." Kaleine patted Poe on the shoulder. "I..." She checked with the General and then looked back to him. "...accept the apology. Good?"

Poe smiled softly. "Good. How about you go ask Finn about the new name we've given your group, hmm?"

"Oooh. Do we get a second name? Noilo said that Jaydavi said he's got Finnscean for a second name now."

"Go ask Finn." Poe let her grab up her helmet and head off in the direction of Finn and Rey where they'd drifted towards the old freighter as Finn told Rey about their freighter with broad hand gestures. He pushed himself to his feet and rubbed a hand across his face. "She's just...ugh."

The General patted his arm. "Just wait until she starts calling Luke a prince." She grinned at Luke. "Jedi Prince."

Luke smacked the General's arm. "No." He shifted his robes. "Finnscean?"

Poe eased away as the General started telling Luke about how she'd decided on the name.

****

The last ship from the base lifted off and joined the rest as they left D'Qar behind. Poe watched the landing ground disappear below them and wondered if his dreamscape was going to change now. He angled his X-Wing, his proper black T-70, to keep tight with the old freighter as they formed up for the jump to lightspeed.

The new X-Wings were keeping up nicely. He grinned as the blue one Luke had claimed did an extra roll before settling into formation. Poe knew there was a chance they were going to pick up someone loyal to the First Order with every new defector they accepted, but this was their best chance to get something good out of all the pain that the First Order assholes had inflected on the galaxy.

BB-8 let him know that their turn was coming up.

"Got it, Buddy." Poe pushed them to lightspeed and grinned as BB-8 reported that the rest of their ships were doing well. "Roger, let me know if something goes wrong." 

He pulled his note taker from his flight suit and flicked through to the translation set he'd complied so far. He went back to splitting things under the various Phases of training and worked on cross-referencing with the protocols he'd gotten from Captain Romi.

****

Their new base was an old Imperial storage depot Poe and Jess had found tucked away one one of the moons of the system they'd scanned before picking up Kaleine's group. The landing bays were huge, designed for supply shuttles bigger than anything the Resistance had, barring their newly acquired freighter.

Leia stared at the new layout as Poe approached with his own little guards. She noted he rated four, who all kept two paces behind BB-8, who was rolling along at Poe's heels. "Find enough spots to land everyone?"

Poe nodded as he held out a data chip towards her. "The freighter itself is outside. It'd fit through the blast doors, but it'd be pretty tight."

She took the data chip with one hand as she waved to the empty seat beside her with her other. "Everyone find a spot to sit." Poe's escort found themsleves seats with her escort along the near wall. She really needed to find something for them to do other than sit there and watch. "What's this?"

Poe settled in the seat she'd offered him. "Protocols for training Stormtroopers. The Enemy List they pass around that was current as of yesterday. They've got Jess' name spelled wrong." 

Leia snorted. "She'll be annoyed at that." She turned the data chip over in her hand. "How many?"

Poe scrubbed his hand through his hair. "Far more than we could begin to support. I promised their Commanding officer, we decided to call him Captain Romi, a liaison officer from us. He's the one that gave us the X-Wings."

With a nod, she took the isolated reader Lieutenant Connix was offering her and plugged in the data chip. "We'll find a volunteer." She pulled up the summary on the training base and had to clench her jaw so she wouldn't gape at the numbers.

"Yeah. That was about my reaction." Poe shrugged as she glanced at him sharply. "I brought all the pilots he could claim had died and all the Force-sensitives he was certain on."

Leia clicked through to that list. "How is he explaining them?"

"They had a rathtar get loose last week. He'll amend the report on it. He said it probably wouldn't even get read by anyone."

She nodded as she set the reader down. "You bring me twenty-five X-Wings, get me eighteen new pilots, kids for Luke to fuss about, and no tea."

Poe grinned. "No tea. And, technically, I only got you nine pilots, General. I'm blaming the other nine on Rey."

With a snort, Leia shook her head. "I have reading to do, Poe. Go have fun exploring our new base." She waited for his escort to start to peel away from hers. "And take _all_ of them with you."

He looked over at them and turned his head to make a face at her that they wouldn't be able to see. She smiled her best kriff-you smile at him.

Poe rolled his eyes and turned to wave his hand at the kids. "Come on, the Princess General has ordered us to go have fun."

She threw the empty caf mug from by her elbow at him as he turned at the blast door grin cheekily at her. "I haven't worked up rosters yet, Dameron."

He had the good sense to wince, but that didn't dim his smile as he tossed her mug back. "I did bring you ships and pilots. That's points for your good graces, right?"

Leia made a show of thinking about it for a moment before smiling sweetly at him. "And yet, you didn't bring any tea. Or the liqour you owe Pava."

He grimaced. "I'll...go work on that."

She chuckled to herself as Admiral Statura approached, probably wanting a copy of the data chip Poe had just given her.

****

Poe would have gotten lost in the maze of corridors that all looked the same, but the kids seemed to know exactly where everything was. He marveled at how fast everything was being put into order. He nudged Noilo in the shoulder as they rounded a corner into Medical. "I swear there's about four times as many of you as there actually are."

Noilo kept close to Poe's side as they past Dr. Kalonia. "We figured out how to talk to the droids with a console. Coordinating makes everything easier."

Poe nodded as they turned into the room the TIE pilots were in until they were cleared by Medical. He looked them over as Jaydavi was poked awake by the female pilot that had been so happy to see him. "Hello."

They chorused a greeting back at him.

"Okay. So, you probably know I'm Black Leader." He got a round of nods. "Everyone is good with joining the Resistance?"

Noilo tugged on Poe's shirt.

Poe looked down at him. "What is it?"

"Why do you ask that? You asked us that too."

Poe squinted at him for a moment. "I ask because if you don't want to we wouldn't make you."

Jaydavi made a surprised noise. "Really? You never seem to want to decommission anyone. So...What would you do with someone that didn't want to join?" 

Poe looked around at all the wide eyes staring at him. "We'd give them enough to get them to an Outer Rim planet and have them promise they wouldn't betray us to the First Order. You can usually find work without proper identification as long as you don't really care what you're doing."

The room erupted into chatter as Poe settled on the edge of an unpacked crate to watch.

Noilo hopped up to sit next to Poe. "Mad Jess seemed worried when she woke up to part of the platoon in her room when the scramble alarm came."

Poe shrugged. "It's just disconcerting." He frowned. "Wait. She always has her door locked when she sleeps. Which of you can pop a lock?"

Noilo waggled his hand in a so-so gesture. "We can all do it, but Kaleine's best at it. She says the locks hum at her."

"Okay. Hum, uh?"

Noilo nodded. "We haven't popped locks unless we really needed to. None of us wanted to sleep in the empty room while you, Finn, and Jaydavi were gone."

"Yeah, about that. Usually beings get their own room or they share two or three to a room. We usually don't go over four a room. We only put the whole platoon in one room because we didn't have warning about your numbers."

One of the TIE pilots turned their head toward Poe and Noilo. "Only _four_ to a room at most?" She turned back to the other pilots. "Being Resistance keeps getting better and better."

Poe bit is lip to contain his urge to snort at that.

Jaydavi nodded. "And he doesn't mean in shifts. He's meaning four to a room period."

They all fell silent and turned to stare at Poe.

"Four is max when we don't have a lot of room. We only go over that in an emergency. Here we've got enough room it looks like we're going to be two or three to a room. Depends on how many of the freshers we can get working." 

The near simultaneous blink he got nearly made Poe giggle.

One of the pilots near the wall spoke up, "A fresher per room?"

Poe nodded and they erupted into chatter again. He poked Noilo in the side. "I take it the shift sleeping isn't just for a new location?"

Noilo shrugged. "We're on four shifts, but adults are on three shifts."

That explained the ten to his room at any one time during the day. "Why my room?"

Noilo hunched down. "Kaleine felt safer there. BB-8 said you wouldn't mind as long as we didn't take or break anything."

"And she felt safer with Pava when I was gone?"

"Yes." Noilo uncurled a little. "She says no one was a danger to us, but it doesn't make it easier to sleep exposed in a huge room."

"Too big, huh?"

"It echoed."

Poe nodded like that was something that would have bugged him too. He clapped his hands to get the pilots' attention. "So. Joining or going to the Outer Rim?"

"Joining." The female pilot bit her lip. "JY-00...Sorry, Jaydavi said you'd help us with names. Is that right?"

Poe scratched at the back of his neck. "Well, yes. I've managed to be wrangled into naming everyone else so far." He pulled up the roster he had going on his note taker. "Who's first?"

****

By the time Poe dragged himself to his new room he was beyond exhausted. He patted BB-8 and stopped in his doorway to stare at kids ranged on his floor to Rey sitting cross-legged on the furthest bunk. 

Finn looked to be sleeping on the nearest bunk. He jerked as he woke up when the door slid closed behind Poe.

Poe maneuvered around the kids' little log-like lumps of blankets and sat on the end of what looked to be his bunk. "Hi."

Rey waved a hand and smiled that little smile he'd only ever seen her use on an unconscious Finn. "Got them named?"

Poe yawned wide and then nodded. He looked over to Finn propped up on his elbow watching them. "You know you're free to leave any time."

Finn frowned. "What are you talking about?"

Rey leaned forward. "Poe?"

Poe scrubbed his hands through his hair. He really needed to clean up before he collapsed in his bunk. He caught sight of the shelf past Rey. The four childhood models of ships he dragged from base to base were set up in the same exact order and placement as the old base. "I just don't want you to feel trapped." He looked at Finn. "How many Stormtroopers share a room?"

"Thirty. In three shifts." Finn frowned and pushed himself clear up to sitting against the wall his bunk was built against. "What's that have to do with anything?"

"Fresher?"

"Communal Fresher shared between two or three barracks rooms depending on the configuration. We'd get less to a fresher on muddy or sandy planet assignments."

Rey wrapped her arms around herself. "That's a lot of people." She looked at him. "That's a lot, right?"

Poe flopped back on his bunk. "Yeah. That's considered a lot. No wonder they were surprised by our being no more than four a room with no sharing in shifts."

Finn made a noise. "I thought...Huh. Okay, that's why Pava made a face at me when I asked why no one besides Rey and I were placed in your room. She insinuated we'd need to kick the kids out sometimes, but I'm not sure what she meant."

Poe rolled so he could see Finn in the low light. "I'm too tired to have this conversation. We'll work on the kids not barging in on people later." He dropped his hand over the side of his bed and touched Kaleine's back. "No popping locks without telling me about it. Even locks that hum."

She pulled her blanket down and squinted up at him. "They only hum if they're powered. It's lots easier to open those."

Rey picked her way across the kids to flop next to Poe so she could peer down over the edge of Poe's bunk. "Do they hum low tone for you? I get different tones from different parts."

Poe rolled to put his back to them. "Ugh. I'm going to sleep." He smiled to himself as Rey and Kaleine talked about Force tones. He needed to remember to mention it to Luke. He could still hardly believe he'd been in combat with _Luke Skywalker_ himself. Poe snuggled down as someone spread a blanket over him. His boots disappeared and he sighed as sleep tugged him under.

The dreamscape hangar was bigger. He turned towards the forcefield and now there were blast doors that could roll over the opening. BB-8 was rolling patrol along like normal.

Poe turned back towards the Force-sensitive tree at the other end of the hangar. Finn was sitting against the base of the tree. It took no time and an eternity for Poe to cross the hangar to Finn. "Hi."

Finn grinned. "Hi."

Poe settled next to him. "I'm sorry if my asking about your past bothers you."

He shrugged. "I'm never going back so it doesn't bother me. Some things you _know_ I can barely grasp, but that doesn't bother me either." Finn leaned against his shoulder. "Everyone will adjust. It just takes time."

Poe shifted them so his arm was wrapped around Finn's shoulders. "Let me know when adjusting gives you problems." They watched BB-8 roll back and forth for several passes. "Are you going to be alright with being the face of a Stormtrooper rebellion?"

Finn sighed. "I just needed a pilot. Rebellion wasn't even on my scans when I grabbed you." He fidgeted with the lightsaber in his hands. "I don't see how I'm going to be the face of anything. Anyone that knew my designation has probably been killed. They won't put me on the Enemy List because High Command wouldn't want it known I lived."

Poe squeezed Finn's shoulders. "We'll figure out a way to spread the word." He felt himself getting heavier. "Remind me to explain to you why we might want to kick the kids out."

Finn hummed and the last thing Poe perceived was the blue-white of shadow of a little boy smiling at him from near BB-8.

****


End file.
